Phillies Prospect Breaks a Rib While Getting Off the Couch

Phillies Prospect Breaks a Rib While Getting Off the Couch

Now you have an excuse to stay on the couch the next time your spouse/parent/employer asks you to get up and take care of business. Remaining comfortably reclined, preferably with a blanket and the television remote, is in the best interest of your personal health.

They won’t believe you at first, but calmly explain the inherent dangers that come with such strenuous motions. You might break a rib!

Apparently that’s what happened to Phillies single-A third-base prospect Mitch Walding on Sunday. Per Jay Floyd of the blog Phillies Nation (hat tip Deadspin), Walding was having a nice sit in the clubhouse when some jerk manager presumably told him to go field some ground balls or something, and next thing you know, there goes a rib.

Of course, Walding did have a pre-existing condition in a stress fracture in that rib. But unless you’ve been to the doctor recently, you don’t know what’s going on in there. Best to just play it safe. Stay down.

This is just the kind of year it’s been for the Phillies. The injury bug stung the big-league roster hard, claiming the likes of Ryan Howard, Ben Revere, and Mike Adams for the season, along with Roy Halladay, Chase Utley, and Carlos Ruiz for stretches. However, the bug hasn’t necessarily spared the farm system, either.

"I think anybody who knows me or who has played with or against me along the road here, knows that I am not that kind of player," Manning said, according to a statement released by the Flyers. "I am not out there intentionally trying to hurt people. I'm a guy who plays the game hard and I take pride in that."

Gretzky didn't mind seeing that fire in McDavid, saying competitiveness is part of what makes the great ones great. And he said the targeting comes with the territory of being a superstar. It was something he and Mario Lemieux dealt with, too.

"And Connor, he's going to get tested every night, but this is not new for him," Gretzky said Friday at the NHL board of governors meetings. "He's been tested since he was a kid and then playing junior hockey and now in the NHL and he's always responded and done his part."